Conflict Transformation Program

You can read more about the overarching initiative or listen to a Vermont Public radio interview with former Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton.

The Schools Abroad are working to further the goals of Global Literacy within the Middlebury community and beyond. We have multiple projects related to and funded through this initiative with international staff and partners continuing to develop more opportunities. 

Middlebury has 16 Schools worldwide across 32 sites where undergraduates from Middlebury and other US colleges and universities study, as well as graduate students in some of our locations.  Many of our programs are fully embedded within the curriculum and students study in the host country language. Through language education and immersive learning, our students are challenged to transcend their own knowledge and habits. The skills of intercultural communication and curious listening help our students positively contribute to the conflicts they encounter around the world.   

Through research and instruction, these projects provide participants with an understanding of the root causes and social structures that lead to conflict, and the skills to reshape the dynamics behind it to strengthen civil society. Students at all levels have the opportunity to become skilled at transforming conflict by crossing intellectual, cultural, and geographical borders.

2024-2025 Academic Year Projects

Argentina

In the Fall of 2024 and Spring 2025, students from the School in Argentina and Uruguay traveled to Neuquén, Argentina. Through visits to the Aluminé intercultural hospital and the neighboring autonomous Mapuche territories, students investigated conflicts in health care that emerge from different ideologies and concepts of health, science, and community care. The Aluminé intercultural hospital then served as a case study in community-based conflict transformation. As in previous iterations of this CT-inspired course, this excursion exposed students to interests, needs, and positions of local actors and to conflicts not commonly seen in their host cities nor taught in general university classes. This trip included representatives from Middlebury’s School in Chile as teams explore the possibility of future cross-school collaboration in Patagonia. Click here for information on CT projects from previous semesters.

Cameroon

CT Course

In Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, the Middlebury School in Cameroon once again offered the CT Course The Roles and Experiences of Women in Transforming Conflict in Post-Colonial Cameroon. This course explored the role of Cameroonian women as changemakers. Using the case study of internally displaced women from the ongoing conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon, students identified and analyzed transformative approaches to political conflicts and learned from women changemakers and their community-based efforts to transform those conflicts. Conflict was discussed across numerous themes including environment, education, food and water, the economy, displacement, and public health. Through academic writings on CT and field-based experiences with local and international NGOs, students observed, learned, and described how women negotiate freedom, re-integration, stability and reemergence for themselves, their families, and their communities in periods of conflict.

In the Fall of 2024, students at the School in Cameroon participated in a class entitled “Intercultural Theories and Practice” where they learned theories of intercultural communication (ICC), practiced through group excursions, and reflected on their experiences. One ICC theory crucial to the course was the cultural adjustment W curve, which can help students frame shifting cultural understandings and interactions with their host community. Through lectures, class discussions, written reflective papers, and community experiences, students became more aware of the inter and intrapersonal conflicts that arise in new cultural environments. They then developed strategies for negotiating respectful and meaningful cultural integration, which included identifying conflicts, looking to peers for support, drawing context from ethnographic interviews, and practicing deep observation. As a result of the course, students gained confidence during their time abroad, understanding of their host culture, the ability to further their immersion, and the tools to transform intercultural conflicts into personal growth and deeper relationships.

Research Assistantships - Women in Cameroonian Media

In the Spring of 2025, a School in Cameroon student and one local Cameroonian student worked alongside Professor Erik Fofack at the Yaoundé-based Center for Gender, Peace and Security (CGPS) as Junior Researchers, supporting his research on women’s representation in Cameroonian media. Students investigated gender representation in local media, monitoring media outlets, and exploring newspaper and magazine archives. The position allowed students to apply their French language skills to a semi-professional setting and gained a nuanced understanding of the Cameroonian social, political, and cultural environment. For more information on how to apply for this funded opportunity click here. 

France

CT Courses

Two CT courses were offered again in Spring 2025: Taking to the Streets: Revolts and Social Movements in France and The EU, an Unprecedented Experiment in the Socialization of Conflicts. Students in the Taking to the Streets course learned about the history and role of social and political conflict in France while also gaining a foundation in conflict transformation. Students analyzed actors and causes of conflict, the role of conflict in shaping French governance, and visited sites including the Conseil économique, social & environmental and the National Museum of the History of Immigration. Students taking the The EU, an Unprecedented Experiment in the Socialization of Conflicts course analyzed the EU through the lens of conflict transformation, learning about the institutionalization of conflict management, deliberation, and dialogue at both the national and regional level. The course included a guided tour of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Internships & Intercultural Learning

EUSA is an educational organization that works with the School in France to place and guide students through faculty-led, intercultural, and linguistically immersive internship programs in Paris. In Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, EUSA integrated CT into their curriculum so that students could harness the conflict inherent to intercultural, intergenerational workplace relationships as a tool for deeper self-understanding, more effective working relationships, and stronger intercultural communication. Students participating in an EUSA internship learned basic concepts in a CT-informed EUSA orientation, practiced transformative approaches by applying the CT framework to workplace conflicts, reflected on their engagement with conflict in weekly journal entries, and planned for future CT development in a final report.

Morocco

In Spring 2025, two students at the School in Morocco worked as research assistants under the guidance of Professor Hassan Belhiah. Their independently conducted research projects covered cultural-linguistic landscapes in modern Morocco. One student focused on the modern reintegration movements of Moroccan Jews, looking at the historical roles of this religious minority and dispelling antisemitic misconceptions promulgated by the Moroccan government. Another explored the marginalization of language and culture as factors influencing economic disparities, drawing on historical analysis of Arab conflicts past and present to identify how language and conflict interact. The theme of the students’ research was historical roots of linguistic tensions, the impact of Arabization, and current efforts to revitalize and promote Amazigh language and culture. Students documented linguistic revitalization efforts, educational policies and equity in Moroccan civilian life. Through statistical analysis, historical research, and first-hand accounts students immersed themselves in Morocco’s history. Their research showed how language can serve as both an instigator and a tool for transformation in conflicts both past and present. For more information on how to apply for this funded opportunity click here.

United Kingdom

The Middlebury-CMRS Oxford Humanities Program (M-CMRS) held a CT-themed symposium entitled “The Northern Ireland Peace Process and What Can Be Learned From It” during the 2024-2025 academic year. Speakers included Professor Ian McBride, Foster Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford; Lord John Alderdice, the former leader of the Alliance Party in Northern Ireland; and Sir Jonathan Phillips, who has been both Warden of Keble College and Permanent Secretary of the UK’s Northern Ireland Office, spoke on the Northern Ireland peace process. Speakers and students engaged in discussions that considered if and how the lessons of the Northern Ireland peace process could apply to other conflicts. 

Uruguay

In Fall 2024 and Spring 2025, students at the School in Uruguay once again worked with the non-profit organization Redalco which addresses unequal food distribution, recovering discarded food and redistributing to disadvantaged communities in Montevideo. Middlebury students observed Redalco’s recovery of crops, learned about market criteria, consumer culture, food waste, and asymmetrical distribution. Then, students visited a Redalco beneficiary site in the Montevideo suburbs. Student participation in Redalco’s operations for redistribution of food to disadvantaged sectors of Montevideo has become a traditional component of the School in Uruguay’s Writing and Culture course, along with their trip to Patagonia alongside students at the School in Argentina. Click here for information on CT projects from previous semesters. 

Spain

The School in Spain integrated CT activities into their orientation programs for the Fall and Spring this past academic year. “Stolpersteine: aquí vivió” and “Madrid Negro” invited students to learn about chapters of Spanish history often forgotten, overlooked, or even contested by Spanish society: the thousands of Spaniards deported to Nazi concentration camps following the Spanish Civil War and the history of colonialism and enslavement in Spain. Students reflected on the restorative nature of history reclamation and discussed how best to repair the harm done to Spain’s Black and Jewish populations. After the tour, students met in groups with orientation assistants and participated in a guided discussion.

Chile

In the Fall of 2024, a CT-funded research project brought together six students (2 from the Middlebury School in Chile and 4 local students from the Universidad de la Frontera) to address socio-ecological conflicts at the Ramsar site in Monkul, in the Araucanía Region of Chile. Middlebury and Chilean students carried out research on the Mapuche community Mateo Nahuelpan, investigating the value of biocultural memory related to wetlands and identifying and analyzing socio-ecological conflicts from this community’s perspective. Their analysis proposed strategies for transforming present and future conflicts related to land management. Students engaged in individual and group reflections that deepened their understanding of conflict transformation processes and connected theory with practice. Activities included theoretical readings, conflict mapping, interviews with key informants, and a community presentation of findings. Project outputs included written reflections on the relationship between theory and practice, a report with analysis and research findings, and possible future strategies for biocultural conservation. This project not only strengthened conflict transformation skills but also fostered an interdisciplinary and intercultural understanding of socio-ecological conflicts, highlighting the importance of integrating biocultural memory into conservation strategies and encouraging dialogue between local communities and students.

Kazakhstan

In Fall 2024, the Middlebury Russian Program in Kazakhstan had its first CT project, “Negotiating Identity in Kazakhstan: Transforming Conflict,” led by Professor Caress Schenk from the Political Science and International Relations department at Nazarbayev University in Astana. Two students from the Middlebury Program  participated in this research project alongside two Kazakhstani post-graduate research assistants and 6 volunteer/course-based local students. The primary goal of this project was to explore the social diversity that exists in Kazakhstan, which stands in opposition to official and traditional rhetoric that insists on flattened categories of ethnicity, language repertoire, and gender identity. Students were engaged in theoretical learning, including CT readings, academic discussions, and required reflections. Students presented research results that identified and outlined potential paths for transforming conflict related to gender norms and domestic violence in Kazakhstani society. For more information on how to apply for this funded opportunity click here. 

Taiwan

Students studying in the Fall and Spring semesters this past academic year participated in a one-day retreat focused on cross-cultural conflicts between Chinese and Western cultural norms. Through guided meditation, movement and voice exercises, and a closing sharing circle, students developed self-awareness and empathy, exploring how internal responses shape their approaches to conflicts. As a culminating activity, students created reflective works, including personal letters and strategies to address cross-cultural and internal conflicts. These activities equipped students to navigate and transform cultural tensions during their study abroad experience.

Puerto Rico

During the Spring semester, three students took the course titled Writing for Linguistic and Cultural Competence with a focus on Conflict Transformation theories. Pairing theory with real-world engagement, students embarked on a three-day field trip to the towns of Ceiba and Vieques where they met with representatives from local organizations and communities. Students learned about Paul Lederach’s framework and compared it to Participatory Action Research (IAP) methodology and Paulo Freire’s thinking on the pedagody of the oppressed. These critical frameworks and CT theory allowed students to learn and reflect on the history of the US Navy in the town of Ceiba and on Vieques island (1941-2003), community members’ resistance to a military presence, and the work of local organizations currently engaged in improving the social conditions and wellbeing of its inhabitants and ecosystems.